Theme: Living on the StreetThe LAB will work on the living conditions of homeless people who live on the streets of Santiago, Chile. The homeless are considered an extreme case of social housing solutions for this LAB.
The challenge and task comes from Fundación Vivienda and the LAB seeks to explore possible solutions within the field of architecture and design, for people who don’t access the network of hospices managed by Hogar de Cristo (or similar institutions) and ends up living on the streets.

Objectives of the local design studioa) Understand and represent the problems of people on the street. Students have to be able to explain the process analysis methods and the process that have enabled them to arrive at a specific formal solution.
b) Learn and put into practice different tools of observation and representation from the field of design, architecture and urban planning. (Qualitative methods of observation; user center techniques; technological feasibility; visual presentations; production variables; social, contextual relationships or any other variable that could be of interest for the case of study.)
c) Present and discuss from a multidisciplinary perspective the project to university authorities and other strategic partners (Fundación Vivienda and Hogar de Cristo)
d) Design and produce models and prototypes that could be tested in real conditions.

ADU aims to be tested (based on some aims of the Work Team: “Design thinking and transdisciplinary work”)

1. Multidisciplinary perspective
The Lab will stress the ability of Architects and Designers to working together in solving a specific problem and integrating projecting methods and backgrounds.

2. Different ways of producing and sharing information
The first part is based on field surveys and should include site visits, interviews with main stakeholders, scanning, mapping and presenting main inputs of theme to be studied. The information gathered through this survey will be share among the LAB, and it will be the starting point for all proposals. The rest of the LAB will be base on multidisciplinary teams, which will evaluate considering both architectural and design views. The production of content won’t be hierarchical because students and teachers will define the boundaries of the problem together. Teachers will guide and share their point of view.

3. Involvement of academic and professional fields
The LAB will approach a real problem and real partners so the task/outcome will have to deal with real variables and conditions.

4. How the LAB experience in such “extreme subject” (“hot topic”) will affect ADU’s partners work and vice versa
To work with controversial subjects such as the emergency of the homeless situation or natural disasters is polemic and generates opinion. It also generates discussion between students and teachers on national and global issues. The LAB and its projects expect to enhance the socio-cultural understanding of reality and enrich the discussion among other ADU partners.

Methodology and relation with ADU partners
The work will be developed as an “Integrated Laboratory” between the School of Architecture and the School of Design. Its execution implies three distinct stages:

a) Survey, which aims to understand (visualize) the problem and define the variables that influence it.

b) Multidisciplinary team work, aimed to develop proposals which could improve the conditions of Santiago’s homeless people, as well as those requirements and inputs suggested by Fundación Vivienda and Hogar de Cristo

c) Individual exercise, intended to bring into play some of the variables studied, without depending on the specific requirements of the original commission, such as projects or design solutions for similar situations. For instance those derived from natural disasters, wars (refugee camps) or even alternatives for existing commercial products (i.e. tourism, camping, etc.
Like every ADU pilot project this Lab will have an international partner. Periodical reviews and final project evaluations are expected to be done between both institutions.